Web Statistics Software or Analytics?
Do you use web statistics software like Awstats, Weblizer etc... (any other popular ones?)
Or do you prefer to use Google Analytics and embed the JavaScript in each page?
Solution 1:
For my personal site, I tend to use both awstats and Google analytics. Awstats is more accurate, but Google provides information awstats just can't. One disadvantage of Google is including javascript, which could affect your page load time.
No one should use webalizer because it's just so damned ugly :)
Solution 2:
I personally prefer Google Analytics over self-hosted solutions. Depending on the number of hits your sites get, you'll have to run a dedicated machine for your web analytic software. Also, there is less administrative overhead (copying log files, handling user accounts etc.) if you outsource the service.
Google Analytics provides some "Enterprise" features, which a difficult to find in other free solutions:
- scalable for any size
- analyzing subsets of the traffic
- custom reports
- motion charts
- track and compare campaigns
- benchmarking
- trends
- funnel visualization
- geo targetting